Bridgeport gets $10M to hone flood plans

Brian Lockhart

Updated 11:25 pm, Sunday, June 15, 2014

BRIDGEPORT -- The federal government is putting $10 million behind efforts to fortify the city against another Superstorm Sandy.

The money is actually a consolation prize for losing out on a storm-preparedness competition, but one Bridgeport will gladly accept.

The city recently participated in a Rebuild by Design competition for projects aimed at storm resiliency across Sandy-affected regions.

Ten plans were in the running to divvy up $920 million, including Bridgeport's, which focused on the city's lower-income South End. Sandy pummelled the neighborhood in 2012, leaving behind basements filled with 5 feet of water.

But the six finalists announced recently by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were all projects in New York and New Jersey.

David Kooris, Bridgeport's economic development chief, said in a statement that the city was the sole finalist awarded $10 million to fine-tune and engineer strategies to protect not only the South End, but neighboring Black Rock Harbor from future coastal flooding and storms.

The Rebuild by Design process brought officials from the Netherlands to Bridgeport in January for a forum on storm protection and resiliency.

"The Netherlands is a place that's made out of water -- 800 years of working with water," Henk Ovink, a Netherlands planner, said at the time. "We had our Sandy, too -- in 1953."

That storm prompted the nation to embark on major engineering projects to hold back the North Sea, including Oosterscheldekering, a storm surge barrier so huge it has been called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

While Bridgeport will not be installing the Ninth Wonder any time soon, Kooris said the Park City will use the $10 million wisely.

"We will continue to be a leader within our region and this nation on sustainability and resiliency, and these funds will enable us to further develop a strategy that will serve as a model for mid-sized cities through the northeast," Kooris said.